The Invisible Woman (2013)

Movie
German title	The Invisible Woman
Original title	The Invisible Woman
Country of production	United Kingdom
original language	English , French
Publishing year	2013
length	112 minutes
Age rating	FSK 0
Rod
Director	Ralph Fiennes
script	Abi Morgan
production	Christian Baute ; Carolyn Marks Blackwood ; Stewart Mackinnon ; Gabrielle Tana
music	Ilan Eshkeri
camera	Rob Hardy
cut	Nicolas Gaster
occupation
	Ralph Fiennes : Charles Dickens; Felicity Jones : Nelly; John Kavanagh : Rev. William Benham; Tom Attwood : Mr. Lambourne; Susanna Hislop : Mary; Tom Burke : Mr. George Wharton Robinson; Tommy Curson-Smith : Geoffrey; David Collings : Governor; Tom Hollander : Wilkie Collins ; Joanna Scanlan : Catherine Dickens; Michael Marcus : Charley Dickens; Kristin Scott Thomas : Mrs. Frances Ternan; Perdita Weeks : Maria Ternan; Richard McCabe : Mr. Mark Lemon; Gabriel Vick : Mr. Berger; Mark Dexter : Mr. Augustus Egg; Joseph Paxton : Mr. Pigott;

The Invisible Woman is a British biography by Ralph Fiennes about the life of the English novelist Charles Dickens . The film is based on the novel of the same name by Claire Tomalin .

It had its world premiere on August 31, 2013 at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado . It was shown in German cinemas from April 24, 2014.

action

1857 in London. At a performance at the Theater Royal Haymarket , 45-year-old famous writer Charles Dickens became aware of 18-year-old actress Ellen "Nelly" Ternan. Soon after, he gave her, along with her mother and sister Maria, a role in his friend Wilkie Collins ' play "The Frozen Deep" , which is performed at his Free Trade Hall in Manchester. After the performance, the two are alone for a moment.

A little later, Nelly and her family attend one of Dickens' poetry readings in London. He's happy to see Nelly again. Soon after, Dickens took the Ternan family to a horse race and began spending more and more time with them. Unhappy in his marriage because his wife Catherine has nothing to do with his love of writing and literature, Dickens enjoys spending time with Nelly, who shares his interests and enjoys being with the famous novelist.

One day Dickens is walking from his country house at Gads Hill Place in Higham, Kent, to London to see Nelly in a theatrical performance. After the performance, Mrs. Ternan invites him to her modest little house. She watches Dickens exchange looks with her daughter and later warns him that she cannot afford to risk her daughter's reputation. Dickens assures her that he has no intention of compromising her good name.

After a poetry reading, the proceeds of which went to London's “fallen women” and their children, Dickens invited the Ternan family to his home. Nelly looks at his books, manuscripts and writing utensils with enthusiasm. When they are alone, they tell each other about their lives and get closer.

Mrs. Ternan later confides in her daughter Maria what she thinks of Nelly and Dickens. The connection between the two could offer Nelly a secure future that she would not find in the theater because she was less talented than her sisters. Nelly overhears the conversation and is furious that her mother wants her to become a married man's lover. Shortly thereafter, Nelly is visited by Catherine Dickens, who brings her a gold bracelet that her husband had made as a birthday present for Nelly and that was accidentally delivered to her, Catherine.

After the birthday party, Dickens and Collins pick Nelly up and they drive to Collins' house, where he lives with his lover Caroline Graves and their daughter. Nelly senses the kind of life Dickens envisions with her. On the way back in the carriage, she confronts him with this plan and refuses to become his "whore". Dickens apologizes and confesses that he no longer loves his wife. He comforts her.

A few days later, Dickens announced in the Times that he was "amicably" separated from his wife after 22 years of marriage and emphatically denies an affair with Nelly. His wife and children are shocked. Over the next few days, Nelly was encouraged by her mother and Collins that Dickens was an "honorable man". She should forget the old conventions.

When she visits Dickens, he assures her that he wants to forget the past. He shows her the manuscript of a recently completed novel, Great Expectations , and gives it to her to read. After reading it, she praises him for the end of the novel, and Dickens reads a passage to her as if he were addressing her personally. Dickens and Nelly become lovers. They spend some time in France and Nelly becomes pregnant, but the child dies in childbirth. Dickens signs the death certificate with “M. Charles Tringham ”. On their return to England in the spring of 1865, they take the train from Folkestone to London. The train derailed near Staplehurst in Kent, killing ten travelers. Dickens saves Nelly and then, with her silent consent, pretends to travel alone to prevent such a scandal.

In the following years, until his death in 1870, Nelly remained his secret lover and companion. In 1876 Nelly married the Oxford graduate George Wharton Robinson, who was twelve years her junior. They have a son and run a boys' school in Margate . George knows that Nelly met Dickens as a young girl, but he has no idea that she was his lover. Only Reverend Benham knows her secret.

In the final scene, which takes place in 1883, Nelly watches her son at a theater performance at school and remembers the epilogue lines she spoke for Dickens in the play "The Frozen Deep" in 1857:

“This is a tale of woe. This is a tale of sorrow. A love denied, a love restored, to live beyond tomorrow. Read we think silence is the place to hide a heavy heart, remember, to love and be loved is life itself without which we are nought. "

background

The film had a budget of $ 12 million and grossed around $ 1.2 million worldwide. It was produced by BBC Films, Headline Pictures, Magnolia Mae Films and Taeoo Entertainment.

After Coriolanus , The Invisible Woman is the second directorial work by actor Ralph Fiennes .